Uncategorized – Bronx Clay

Posted on October 24, 2021 by bronxclayinfo — Leave a comment

Alex Goes to Penland

This summer I attended a 2 week clay workshop, “Thomas Lucas and Roberto Lugo Clay and Print: The Remix”. I learned how to screenprint with ceramic materials, how to make lithograph transfers and picked up different teaching styles. This class was hosted at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina @penlandschool.

I’ve only been working with clay since 2017, but have been a fiber artist for 11 years. I was always focused on business and securing my financial future and art never felt like something I should do. But after going to school twice for business management I realized how important it was to me and how much I really enjoyed art. In 2017, two years after dropping out of agriculture school. I decided to go back to school locally in NYC, I went to Kingsborough CC for business again. A semester in, I had to switch over to Fine arts in ceramics, I couldn’t take another accounting class. I met my first ceramic mentor and professor, Janice Farley and she noticed how egear I was to learn more ceramics and how great of a fiber artist I am and recommended I look into Penland. Not only recommended but offered to pay for my flight, arranged an airport pickup and told me about the scholarships they offered. I looked into it and applied in 2019 but then 2020 pushed it to 2021.

I’ve never attended an art school but I knew being in a community full of like minded artists would really help with my growth as an artist and entrepreneur. Visiting local Penland artists like the Bringle sisters, Courtney Martin and Bandana Pottery really helped me visualize my big picture future. It helped me see how important it was for each of them to surround themselves with folks that would encourage and push them to improve their art or help open doors for them.

Overall, this was an experience that I’ll cherish forever. I’m already looking at the different avenues to return to Penland, perhaps as a core fellow so I can explore some other mediums or maybe a fiber instructor. I’ll share it with any curious artist looking to grow further.

Posted on September 26, 2021 by vannavaldez — Leave a comment

Vanna’s Experience at Snow Farm

As an artist that loves to learn new things and expand my skills, I love craft schools. Craft schools are schools that offer courses in ceramics, metals, paper crafts, drawing, printmaking, painting, fiber arts, glass, etc. The classes cover different topics, usually focusing on a specific style or technique. I am always looking through brochures of places like Penland, Peter’s Valley, Haystack, etc. – window shopping and wishing I could take all the workshops. They all look like fun! They can be expensive, but oftentimes scholarships and/or work study opportunities are available to help the programs be accessible for people without the means to pay. This summer, thanks to one such scholarship, I was able to attend an extended workshop with an artist I really admire named Melissa Weiss.

I don’t remember the first time I came across Melissa’s work, but I remember thinking wow this woman is such a badass! She digs her own clay, she’s a mom just like me, she runs her own business and to top it off she advocates for equity in ceramics! She doesn’t just talk about it either, she puts her money where her mouth is. When I found out she was teaching a 9 day workshop at Snow Farm School of Craft I was happy to learn that there were BIPOC scholarships available, which Melissa worked to help raise funds for. The scholarship was substantial – it covered all class expenses, food and housing. I rushed to submit my scholarship application because without it I wouldn’t be able to attend.

In the middle of organizing Bronx Clay’s community workshops this Spring, I received an email letting me know that I got one of the scholarships! It had been so long since I had taken a workshop like this. I was excited and nervous at the same time – would I come across folks with big nasty egos? People who try to make you feel smaller than? How would I fit in?

When I got to SnowFarm I was surprised to see everyone was so nice and welcoming. (You have to remember I’m coming from NYC – I will forever be surprised when people are nice and welcoming.) Everything was green and the air smelled so good, so sweet. Class started right away. I was happy to see that there were other BIPOC students in the class. We talked about COVID safety measures, made sure everyone felt comfortable and introduced ourselves. That day and throughout the week Melissa demonstrated how she makes everything she makes, including her carved cups, carved boxes, large coil built potluck dishes, pitchers, bowls, coffee drip cones and even whistles. There was no detail spared. We even learned how she makes her ash glaze and how she reduction cools the glaze kiln. I learned so much during my time there and the other participants were so funny and sweet – no big nasty egos! I made soo much work and got to experiment freely, without worrying about whether it will sell – just making for fun and exploring surfaces, noticing patterns, practicing new decorating techniques. Most of all, I truly value the connections I made at the workshop. It has widened my network within the ceramic community at a critical time for me as we try to grow Bronx Clay.

If you’re into the arts and creating, I would 1000% recommend looking into the various craft schools across the US. Don’t let lack of money hold you back! It’s worth it to look into whether they have workstudy or scholarships available and if they don’t have it listed call and ask!

Some places to look into include Touchstone Center for Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, Peter’s Valley School of Craft, Sonoma Community Center, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Idyllwild Summer Arts Program. I know there are many more that I haven’t mentioned and have yet to discover.

Do you know of any craft schools you would recommend?

Posted on September 14, 2021 by bronxclayinfo — Leave a comment

Summer Update

Hello all! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

This Spring/Summer we organized another successful series of free clay workshops at Kelly Street Garden in the South Bronx. The workshops were a hit with classes filling within half an hour of registration opening. We worked on making pinched forms, coil building, slab building mugs, and making decorative masks. We really enjoyed seeing how the workshops brought together people of all ages and backgrounds! At the end of the workshops, we had an exhibit where folks could come and see their art displayed, after which everyone was able to take their finished pieces home.

Since we wrapped up the workshops, both Alex and I have ramped up our search for spaces that could potentially become our permanent teaching space. NYC is expensive!! But we hold out faith that we will find a space that’s right for us!

We were each also able to take advantage of scholarship and work-study opportunities, which allowed us to take extended workshops with artists we admired! We will be sharing more about these experiences soon!

Thank you all for your support. Our GoFundMe is just past $7K!! We are beyond grateful and take it as confirmation that we are on the right path! Please continue to share our fundraiser with anyone who may be able to help. We also welcome any leads or tips on potential spaces in the South Bronx.

Also, exciting news: we will soon start selling merch and pots in our shop! Stay tuned!!

Much love!

Vanna

Posted on June 2, 2021June 5, 2021 by vannavaldez — Leave a comment

Bronx Clay is on the Web!

Hello World!!

We are Bronx Clay! It’s been a long time of planning and organizing (through a whole pandemic!!), but we are finally here!

My name is Vanna Valdez and I am one half of Bronx Clay. Here’s a little bit about how and why I got here:

Freshman year of college I studied Ceramics as an elective at Syracuse University. Initially wanting to major in Advertising Design, I decided Ceramics was more fun! It was freeing and soothing to my soul. I loved every bit of it! I let my heart lead and when the time came to declare a major, I was standing in front of one of the heads of the department, David MacDonald. He was one of the only other people of color in the building. I felt welcomed and I signed up on the spot!

I graduated in 2009 during the Great Recession and although I was working as an intern for two artists that summer, I wasn’t getting paid. I was glad for the experience, but I needed to eat! I was literally starving. Not to mention Sallie Mae was knocking at my door and family and friends were telling me maybe I had made a mistake majoring in ceramics. The self doubt crept in and took hold. It kept me from even trying to start, and for 10 years I didn’t.

After overcoming a tremendous amount of self doubt, with the help of a few friends I leapt out and decided to give myself to the process. I started by giving back to the community. I created a series of free ceramic workshops for my neighborhood of the South Bronx, led by myself and other ceramic artists of color. We followed the workshops with public exhibitions of the participants’ work in local art spaces in the community. The goal was to have the community see themselves as the creators they are and see themselves and their work valued. It was a success! A team of 5 artists led 6 workshops to over 120 participants that summer and we held 2 public exhibitions showing off everyones work. Everyone loved it and wanted to know where our studio was, but we didn’t have one. The success of those workshops and the community’s desire for more is partially what has encouraged Alex and I to continue to build on that idea and create Bronx Clay.

This Spring we have organized another series of free ceramic workshops at Kelly Street Garden, and they’ve gotten off to a great start! We are looking forward to creating more of these workshops and continuing to work to build up our community!

Our ultimate goal is to raise enough funds to open a ceramic studio in the South Bronx where we can offer the community a safe space to come to have fun, learn a new craft and express their creativity.

Please help support this work by donating to our fundraising campaign and please share our campaign within your networks.

Did you know that 80% of the artists represented by NYC’s top 50 galleries are white, even though white people only make up 64% of the population? Only 8.8% of the artists represented are black and a meager 1.2% are hispanic. That’s a huge discrepancy! The arts is an 800 Billion dollar industry. There is money to be made and we deserve to be part of it!

Did you know that in The South Bronx there are schools that don’t even have an art program or art teacher? Many of our borough’s students aren’t given the opportunity to experience different forms of creating art, let alone ceramics. As a result these students often don’t pursue careers in the arts, even when they may have a talent for it. This impacts us all, leaving a void of diverse perspectives and fresh, new ideas.

We believe that art is essential and everyone should have access to it. When everyone is given the opportunity to contribute, new worlds become possible. We envision a world where diversity in the arts is fully realized, fostering growth and radical expansion for the field at large.

Thank you all for visiting our website and following us on our journey. Stay tuned for more!

Much Love,

Vanna